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Comment Re:How deep is "deep" for access? (Score 2) 57

System Management Mode is generally regarded on x86 as ring(-3). Userspace is ring(3), kernel space is ring(0), and if a hypervisor is running that's generally ring(-1). System Management mode can also run a hypervisor (at least on Intel... I know, x86 is crazy). When you use a USB keyboard or something similar to interact with a BIOS, that's partially some drivers running in system management mode that are trapping back and forth between those contexts. SMM is about as game over as it gets.

Comment Re:Why Force Your Children to Live in the Past? (Score 2) 734

I don't necessarily disagree with your main premise, but our medical system is head and shoulders above almost everyone else. Yes its financial burden may not be equitable, but in extreme situations no one really holds a candle. Is it best for the largest area of the bell curve? Maybe not. But an enormous amount of energy goes into servicing the tails; that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Comment Re:Damage is already done (Score 2) 112

... the engineering department (though, typically this is not a good idea, since CPEs/EEs look down on CS).

Reminds me of a joke my EE professor told us (our CS department is in the engineering school): Why is the CS department part of the engineering school? Every school has to have a special-ed program

Comment Re:If You're Going To Make Promises ... (Score 1) 280

Well I was refused a replacement inside of 2 years. Apple refused to admit the problem with my Macbook Pro (of the same series with the same GPU) was affected by the problem. It cost me quite a bit in gas to the nearest Apple store, where they said it wasn't their problem. Hours on the phone, again denying it was the same problem. Finally I got a hold of some secret-ish Apple customer complaint line, where I explained to them that I worked at an electronics packaging lab, and had the equipment to verify the problem (the defect was some sort of packaging problem). This was not entirely true, though it was within my university's department. They finally relented when I said that if this defect was indeed covered by the recall I would be bringing the results of the test to every news outlet I could. Still took 3 weeks to get the damn machine back, and it runs hot as fucking anything.

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